This invention relates to medical implements such as needleless hubs or injection ports, and in particular to a device for automatically disinfecting a portion of the medical implement and that keeps the hub and/or port covered, clean and disinfected.
Needleless vascular catheter hubs and access or injection ports are used thousands of times each day in the United States medical facilities. Unless the hubs and ports are disinfected, patients are at a significant risk of blood stream infections caused by microbes that gain access through the needleless hub or injection port.
In the past, practitioners using a needleless hub or injection port have sought to disinfect the hub or port with alcohol in order to prevent microbial entry. Practitioners who seek disinfection in this manner typically wipe the hub or injection port with an alcohol-soaked swab before accessing it. That, however, has proven to be only partially successful in reducing blood stream infections which are introduced through the needleless hubs or injection ports.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,554,135, 5,792,120 and 6,045,539 deal with the infection problem by providing a cover for the injection port, with the cover including a sponge and shatterable plastic capsule containing an antiseptic solution. When the cover is applied to a needleless hub or injection port and the plastic capsule is shattered, disinfectant soaks the sponge and disinfects the covered end of the needleless hub or injection port.
All disinfection procedures, including that of the patents of the immediately preceding paragraph, suffer a common infirmity. For disinfection to take place, a practitioner must actively take action, such as wiping the hub or injection port, or applying a disinfectant cap. No device has been provided which is automatic, each time the needleless hub or injection port is accessed, to disinfect the hub or port. That is, the devices have no means of “forced compliance”, where the practitioner need do nothing to disinfect the hub or port other than access it.